On Tuesday we made Roman mosaics. First we used tiles and glass pebbles to make a design in the bottom of a tin which we had lined with cling film. Then we poured plaster of Paris on top of the design and left it to set. After half an hour or so we carefully lifted the cling film out of the tin and left the mosaic to dry out further. To finish we used plastic tools to scrape out any extra plaster, and polished off the mosaics with an old toothbrush and some tissue. Beautiful!
Roman Hypocaust (meaning fire below) System
We discovered that the Romans invented the first central heating system, using fires to heat underneath the tiled floors of their homes and bath houses. The hot air circulated beneath the floors and around the wall cavities. We used Lego to create our own model hypocaust systems, using a real ceramic floor tile for the floor of the house. We used a hair dryer to blow hot air into the cavity below the floor. We felt the floor tile heating up from the heat of the hair dryer below. Amazing!
Roman Hypocaust (meaning fire below) System
We discovered that the Romans invented the first central heating system, using fires to heat underneath the tiled floors of their homes and bath houses. The hot air circulated beneath the floors and around the wall cavities. We used Lego to create our own model hypocaust systems, using a real ceramic floor tile for the floor of the house. We used a hair dryer to blow hot air into the cavity below the floor. We felt the floor tile heating up from the heat of the hair dryer below. Amazing!